Contraception For Dummies
by llAurorall
Summary: Arizona, clearly, needs a lesson in contraception...


_Author's Note: Takes place after episode 06x17, where Callie has spent most of her day handing out relationship advice and making cartilage, with moderate success in both arenas._

_Grey's Anatomy, Contraception For Dummies_

Arizona couldn't sleep. When she was restless, she cleaned. She started in the living room, moving to the kitchen and eventually the bedroom.

There wasn't much to do and when she was finished, she was still buzzing. It hadn't been a particularly thrilling day and she had no pressing cases. It was just some times she didn't know how to switch off. Not even the thought of Callie, wrapped in body-warm sheets, was enough to entice her back to bed.

For lack of anything better to do, Arizona collected the laundry baskets from the wardrobe and set about separating the washes.

Their washing consisted mostly of the clothes they wore under their scrubs; jeans and tops and a plethora of underwear. All of it could go in together. The only precaution Arizona took was checking Callie's pockets. After finding keys, old tissues and even a pager lodged in the rim of the washing machine from Callie's un-emptied pockets, it was easier to just check herself.

In the first pair of jeans Arizona found a fistful of change and Callie's hospital ID. She put them aside, thinking of Callie's face when she saw them; nobody did contrition like Callie.

Halfway through the basket she pulled out another pair of jeans. When she put her hand in the pocket she was too afraid to pull it out again.

Arizona was a lesbian, had never felt anything other. There were certain things she'd never had to deal with. But she was also a woman and no matter your orientation, condoms were things women instinctively knew about.

Closing her eyes to fend off the inevitable, Arizona pulled the offending items from Callie's pocket. When she opened them again, several sealed condoms rested in her hand. She felt the floor drop away and her head started spinning. A hand against the worktop steadied her but her heart still beat like a drum against her sternum.

Before she could stop it she could hear Callie's voice, caught between urgency and ecstasy. The familiar wash of her breath and the pinch at her hips where her fingernails gripped, desperate for purchase, sent hot shivers racing along her skin. Molten need in her abdomen sank to her pubic bone and she could feel her own breath coming shorter.

Then she was crying, imagining Callie caught in that provocative embrace with Mark Sloan between her thighs.

Arizona dropped everything. She grabbed her purse, keys and pager and left the apartment on shaky legs, swallowing back bile. She didn't even care she was practically in her pyjamas. There was only one place she could go and be sure to escape.

Callie bolted upright. Without reaching for the other side of the bed she knew Arizona wasn't there. Bleary eyes focussed on the alarm clock and she nearly cried at the unfairness of it all; she hadn't slept beyond three in the morning for almost a week.

Knowing it was useless to try and go back to sleep without first trying to convince Arizona to join her, Callie shuffled out from under the covers. She padded through to the living room, surprised Arizona wasn't there. The only thing out of place was a laundry basket and she fought a smile, imagining Arizona battling her insomnia again.

When she saw her hospital ID on the worktop her smile turned to a grimace. Even after promising to make an effort, she was still forgetting to empty her pockets out. The next time it happened Arizona had threatened punishment; the kind Callie thought might be along the lines of withholding sex. She'd rather die.

Guiltily she picked up the ID. In doing so she knocked the fruit bowl aside and what she saw made her break out in a sweat. The empty, soundless apartment with the lights left on, suddenly made sense. With shaking hands she picked up a condom packet. She could imagine Arizona finding them in her pockets and she found she couldn't hate her for assuming the worst.

"Damn it, Arizona…"

Callie climbed in to the nearest pair of jeans she could find and threw on a t-shirt that was far too big. She was hopping into her boots when she found her keys. Almost out the door, she went back for the condoms.

She thanked God the hospital was just across the street because she didn't think she could be trusted to drive with her hands shaking like they were. Once outside the apartment block she registered the rain. It wasn't an option to go back.

By the time she skidded through the hospital entrance, startling the night-time security guard, she was soaked-through. Her hair was plastered to the sides of her face and her t-shirt was a second skin.

She headed straight for the reception. The nurse on-duty knew who she was and handed over the sign-in sheets without question but she looked Callie up and down like she had lost her mind.

She didn't care. She hastily scanned the list, finding Arizona's signature penned in just over an hour ago. She scribbled her own signature and practically threw the board at the nurse. The longer it took to find Arizona, the worse Callie felt. She took the stairs two at a time, charging on to the main surgical floor in a spray of rain water.

She ran right in to someone.

"Whoa, where's the trauma?" It was Mark. His hands braced her shoulders but he had a hard time restraining her.

"Mark, what are you doing here? Are you on-call?" She shook her head, ploughing fingers through sodden hair. "Never mind, have you seen Arizona?"

"All this fuss is over roller-girl? She's here, kiddo. Relax."

"No. No, she's not supposed to be here. She should be at home, in bed. With me. The reason she's not is because she found… God damn it, she found condoms in my pockets."

Mark frowned. "They're not yours though, right?"

"No!" Callie took a deep breath. "They're not. But she doesn't know that. She's too busy freaking out that I'm not actually a lesbian."

"Girl's got issues."

She couldn't argue with that. But they both had issues and when one of them messed up, it had to be fixed; unattended wounds got infected.

"Mark, you can tease me later. I have to find Arizona and fix this before it can't be fixed."

He regarded her quietly. Callie's usually olive complexion had withered to ash, eyes wide from too much fear. She couldn't focus on his face for more than a few seconds.

"Well, you can't just get up in her face, Torres. You corner her in the middle of Paeds and she'll never speak to you again."

"Then what the hell do I do, Mark?" She looked up at him, utterly helpless. It hit Mark then how deeply Arizona had curled into Callie's heart.

He brushed wet hair from her face. "Go to the fourth floor on-call room, the one by the service elevators. Let me take care of the rest."

Callie glared at him. "Mark, she found _condoms_, in my pockets. You know, those things that lesbians don't need? You think Arizona is going to do anything you ask?"

Mark smirked. "Torres, let me handle this."

The on-call room was thankfully deserted; right by the elevators it was difficult to get any sleep for the noise. Callie paced the small space between the bunks, fighting the chill. Her teeth were chattering and in the silence it rattled her nerves.

She had no idea what Mark was planning and now that she'd had five minutes to glue her frayed nerves back together, she had to wonder what insanity had possessed her to let Mark handle a situation like this. The only thing that kept her in the room was that she couldn't afford to mess up the plan and make Arizona even more upset.

Absently she fingered the condoms in her pocket and cursed whatever deity had been responsible for the oversight. She accepted that bad things had to happen with the good but it felt like the scales were unfairly tipped.

When Callie heard footsteps, heavy and fast, she jumped behind the door. When it opened it nearly hit her in the face. She had bare seconds to close it before Arizona realised that whatever emergency had brought her running didn't exist.

The room plummeted in to darkness. For good measure Callie stood over the door and turned the lock. When Arizona turned to face her, realisation dawning, she looked mad as Callie had ever seen her.

"I don't want to talk to you right now. I have patients."

"No."

"Calliope, I don't-"

"No. No, Arizona. You don't get to just assume." Callie reached in to her pocket and pulled out the condoms. She couldn't see the finite details of Arizona's face but she could see enough to know her own assumptions were on the money. "This is why you ran out on me in the middle of the night." She threw the offending items down on the bedside table. "And that's okay; you're allowed to do that when I make a mess. But you also have to hear me out first."

"I don't want to hear it, Calliope. I don't want hear about how you're sleeping with me but keeping your options open just in case some hot guy catches your eye." Arizona's voice caught. "I don't want to hear about Mark Sloan or Alex Karev… I _can't_."

"Okay, I get it. I also get that I'm gonna have to say this a lot, and probably often but… You're a moron."

"Well I'm glad you see it the way. That you cheating makes _me_ a moron. You know what I think-"

"Bailey."

"I think you're a… What?"

Callie smiled, taking a step closer. She was relieved that Arizona didn't move back. The heat from her body penetrated the chill. "The condoms? They're Bailey's. She asked me to pick them up from the clinic, because tonight was the third date protocol and the woman needed condoms. Something about pregnancies and STDs."

Arizona pulled a face. "You took condoms from the clinic, for _Bailey_?"

"Yeah, because of her third date with the sexy anaesthesiologist. Lesbians, we don't really need condoms, you know? I mean, sure, I could try and get you pregnant. It would be fun, but really? No."

Arizona smiled, appreciating the levity. She took a breath to drive back the last of her fears. "So the condoms, not yours?"

Callie let herself smile, watching Arizona muddle through the information. The skin between her eyebrows crinkled. "No."

"I am a moron." Arizona offered a contrite smile. "God, Calliope. I hate this."

"You don't trust me." Callie said, swallowing her pride. She didn't let Arizona refute the statement. She stepped close and cupped Arizona's face. Her skin was fire-hot in comparison. "I know my past scares you. But you gotta give me a chance to make you believe. I love you. I _need_ you. Stop running away from me."

Almost on the brink of tears, Arizona didn't know what to say. She looked at Callie's face, fervent yet gentle, and let the wash of sympathetic emotion just take her over. "I love you too…"

Callie didn't wait for permission. She swooped down and pulled Arizona up to her mouth, feeling her body arch readily in to the contact. A hot flush pricked the hairs at the back of her neck. When Arizona's fingers clawed at her ribs she let the tension leave her body in a long, breathless moan.

"You're wet."

Callie pushed her hands under Arizona's scrubs. "You have no idea."

"No." Arizona struggled to get out from under Callie's hands and lips; it was a half-hearted effort at best. "You're soaked-through. You're gonna get sick."

Without warning Callie curled her hands under her own shirt and lifted it over her head. "Warm me up then."

The little light filtering passed the window blinds cast off Callie's skin. The cold made her muscles tremble. Arizona laid her palms against her stomach, letting her fingertips slide easily through the lingering water.

"I can do that…"

_Aurora_


End file.
